I Corinthians 3:12-15

I Corinthians 3:12-15 Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire. Every day we are building or lives. We are either building with good materials or building with bad materials. We are learning good things or wasting our time with empty things. And day by day we are becoming what we are doing. Are you becoming a better person each day? Or are you wasting your life and doing nothing? Paul says that we are either building our lives with gold, silver, and precious stones, or we are building with wood, hay, and stubble. When God’s searching gaze of fire examines our life building one day, which material will survive? Which building will stand the test of eternity? The beautiful gold and silver or the flimsy corn stalks? Be careful how you build your work today!

I Corinthians 3:10,11

I Corinthians 3:10,11 According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul was a wise man. He compared himself to a master builder. But he knew that in order to build a great building, he had to have a good foundation. And Paul’s foundation was Jesus Christ. If you start with Jesus, you can’t go wrong. If you depend upon someone else besides Jesus, you will always be wrong. It is as simple as that. Know Jesus – know peace. No Jesus – no peace. Get it?

I Corinthinas 3:9

I Corinthians 3:9  For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. Paul is talking about unity in our verse. Unity in church. In church, we should all be working together to accomplish the same goal: bring in sinners and learn to be more like Jesus Christ. Then Paul uses two examples: husbandry and building. Husbandry has to do with growing fruit trees and grape vines. In order to grow more fruit and more grapes, the farm worker must prune to tree. He cuts off many branches so that the strength of the roots will go to producing fruit on the tree and not go to produce leaves. The worker wants fruit; he doesn’t want just leaves. And then Paul uses the building example. Jesus Christ is our spiritual foundation, but we as Christians build upon Jesus Christ, our foundation. And as the foundation, Jesus holds the whole building together. We build upon Jesus. So whether it is producing fruit or building a beautiful building, we rely upon Jesus Christ. He is the One who does the work. We are only laborers together with Jesus. He uses us, but we need Him.

I Corinthians 3:4-7

I Corinthians 3:4-7 For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal? Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. There were several divisions in the church in Corinth. Some people wanted to follow this preacher and his ideas and some people wanted to follow that preacher and his ideas. And then there were even other people wanted to pretend that they were better than everyone else and they said that they wanted to follow Jesus Himself. And that’s good – if you really want to follow Jesus. But this group was just saying that they wanted to follow Jesus in order to make a point. They just wanted to sound spiritual. So in our verses, Paul is saying that all of these divisions were shameful because Jesus Christ is not divided. We should all be together in one church getting along with each other. Jesus is not divided, so we should not be divided.

I Corinthians 3:1-3

I Corinthians 3:1-3 And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men? Paul uses several comparisons in our verses for today. What is a comparison? Sometimes in order to understand a word, we are given the opposite of that word – to compare. The first comparison us spiritual and carnal. Spiritual means you understand God and the Bible, and carnal means that you don’t. You are worldly. You just don’t get the things about God. Next Paul uses milk and meat Which food do babies like? Milk or meat? Which food do adults like? milk or meat? So If you need milk you are a baby and if you can handle meat, you are an adult. So the question is, are you a baby Christian or an adult Christian? Do you cry about what God is giving you? Do you whine about the life that God has for you to live? That sounds like a baby to me. When God gives you trouble in life, do you stand up and take it? When difficulty comes your way, do you still stay strong with God? That sounds like an adult to me. So for the last question - and do not say the answer out loud. Are you a baby Christian, whining and crying, or are you and adult Christian who stands up for God? Think about it.

I Corinthians 2:16

I Corinthians 2:16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. God is so much wiser than the unsaved person. No one could ever teach God anything. But when we are born into God’s forever family, we begin to think like God. We like what God likes and we dislike what God dislikes. That is because God is our heavenly Father. After we are saved for a while, we begin to think like God. Oh, God will always be much, much wiser than we are, but we begin to know the mind of God. That is because we have the Holy Spirit within us. So, we have the mind of God. And if we know what God likes, let’s do it? Right?!